We'koqma'q launches fibre-op internet service to get faster downloads, local programming

A First Nation in central Cape Breton, N.S., is starting its own high-speed internet service.

We'koqma'q is now signing up customers, including band members and the public from the nearby community of Whycocomagh, with plans to offer fibre-optic internet, telephone and TV service later this year.

We'koqma'q CEO Gioia Usher said the community was inspired by a similar project launched in Eskasoni First Nation two years ago.

"It was very nice to see a community taking matters into their own hands, in terms of not waiting for the service to come to them," she told CBC Cape Breton's Information Morning. "First Nation communities are growing at a very fast rate, both in population and economic development. In order to sustain that growth, we need reliable high-speed."

Usher said We'koqma'q will own the service provider infrastructure through a company called Skye Communications, and the service itself is a partnership between We'koqma'q, Seaside Communications and the provincial business agency Develop Nova Scotia.

It will include basic bundles and possibly Mi'kmaw language programs.

Better high-speed, more local programming

Usher said owning the service provider will give customers the same high-speed internet access available in larger urban centres and make it possible to provide more local programming.

"It's very comparable and it's nice to have it as a local service, as well, so we're able to control costs in certain ways and offer unique things that other services may not have," she said.

"For example, it'd be great to have something like an all-Mi'kmaw weather channel or news channel or capture some stories from the elders and play them to the homes."

The service is important because other service providers in the area are either too slow or too expensive, she said.

Existing services are "basically unusable" for streaming shows on Netflix, for example, Usher said.

The cost of the service has not yet been determined, but Usher said Skye Communications needs to connect at least half of the 600 homes in We'koqma'q and Whycocomagh to be viable.

Eskasoni, about 40 kilometres west of Sydney, started its own service in 2021. At that time, about 850 of the 1,100 homes on the First Nation had signed up under a similar arrangement using Seaside Communications.

Mariah Battiste of the Eskasoni First Nation, about 40 kilometres west of Sydney, N.S., started selling beads in her home community and now has customers around the world. She relies on fast internet service. (Submitted by Mariah Battiste)

Mariah Battiste runs Sundaylace Creations & Bling, an online beading supplies business out of her Eskasoni home.

Two years ago, she said she was looking forward to the band's fibre-op service because her business was outgrowing the existing high-speed service offered in the community.

"Everything depends on the internet, from shipping out labels to the social media," Battiste said.

"We have four phones, plus three computers, two iPads, two printers; everything is draining the internet."

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